THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OR UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE FOR JUNE 1791. INCLUDING IN APPENDIX II PUBLIC PAPERS P 40: "ADDRESS OF THE HEBREW CONGREGATION IN NEWPORT RHODE-ISLAND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AUGUST 17 1790" BY MOSES SEIXAS
1791réf. 43202Philadelphia: Mathew Carey; Carey Stewart and Co. No. 188 Market-street 1791. Original Sewn Binding without outer wrappers or boards 8vo pages 285-344 1-48 1-40 1-48 total 196 pages with different sections correctly paginated for this issue. With Moses Seixas’ famous letter to President George Washington Seixas wrote to President Washington on behalf of the Newport congregation whose home is the Touro Synagogue the oldest synagogue still standing in America. This letter which appears on p 40 of Appendix II and Washington's reply comprise one of the most famous statements on religious freedom of this period. Here published in America’s first literary magazine George Washington’s famous phrase describing a government that "gives to bigotry no sanction and to persecution no assistance" was originally coined by Seixas in this very letter. It is a moving Biblically toned greeting to the president and was repeated by Washington in his reply assuring it a place among the most cherished in the American historical vocabulary. George Washington's visit to Newport Rhode Island August 17-18 1790 ranks among the seminal episodes in the history of American Jewish religious liberty. Washington left Rhode Island off his travel itinerary the previous year in response to the state's failure to ratify the Constitution. By 1790 after becoming the last state to ratify Washington visited Newport along with members of his administration including Thomas Jefferson. Moses Seixas 1744-1809 a Newport merchant warden of Kaal Kadosh Yeshuat Israel Newport Hebrew Congregation and a prominent Mason was one of the civic leaders who met with Washington. Seixas had a long history as a revolutionary patriot: he remained in the city after it was occupied by the British during the war and signed a document during the occupation pledging loyalty to the patriotic cause. Additionally his brother Rabbi Gershon Mendes Seixas minister of New York's Shearith Israel Congregation known as the "patriot rabbi" was one of fourteen clerygymen officiating at Washington's 1789 Presidential inauguration. Finally as a fellow Mason he and Washington would have had a natural connection. Seixas' eloquent message reads in part: "Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invaluable rights of free Citizens we now with a deep sense of gratitude to the Almighty Disposer of all events behold a Government erected by the MAJESTY OF THE PEOPLE – a Government which to bigotry gives no sanction to persecution no assistance – but generously affording to ALL Liberty of conscience and immunities of Citizenship: – deeming every one of whatever Nation tongue or language equal parts of the great governmental Machine: – This so ample and extensive Federal Union whose basis is Philanthropy Mutual confidence and Public Virtue we cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the Great God who ruleth in the Armies of Heaven and among the Inhabitants of the Earth doing whatever seemeth him good." Grounding religious freedom in natural rights and echoing Seixas' words Washington later replied with an echo of Seixas' language regarding religious freedom: "The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States which gives to bigotry no sanction to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support." See JE Vol. IX pp. 294-295; EJ. Vol. XIV p. 1117; J.L. Blau and S.W. Baron The Jews of the United States 1790-1840 A Documentary History Vol. 1 1963 pp. 8-10. Other pieces of interest include notes on the slave trade by Benjamin Franklin and notes on the Revolutionary War. “The American Museum or Repository of Ancient and Modern Fugutive Pieces &c. Prose and Poetical “title changed to “The American Museum or Universal Magazine” in January 1790 was America's first literary magazine featuring early printings of the US Constitution the Bill of Rights various State constitutions Alexander Hamilton's Report on Manufactures and parts of the Federalist Papers. Complete issue in original sewn binding. Overall condition is very good with scattered darkening and foxing though paper and binding remain nice and strong with clean crisp edges including the notable page containing the address to Washington A Cornerstone of American Judaica. BAMR-69-7A. Philadelphia: Mathew Carey; Carey, Stewart, and Co. No. 188 Market-street unknown
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